[Dogfaced Soldier]

One invokes the Fifth Amendment’s right against risking self-incrimination for the same reason a good rock climber uses ropes: you never know when you might slip or get hit by something unexpected. Plus, even if you’re “innocent” it’s hard even for a legally-trained witness to know how to convey that without possible mis-steps. Bottom line, over centuries, lawyers have figured out that the best practice is not to expose their clients to the high risk that something will go wrong, without any compensating upside.

[kabar]

Yet Kramer gave a videotaped deposition last December in separate civil litigation against BuzzFeed about the dossier and his contact with the former British spy who compiled it, Christopher Steele. Steele was hired by opposition research firm Fusion GPS to write and research the dossier, with funding from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign.

According to British court records obtained by Fox News as part of its ongoing investigation of the Trump dossier, Kramer was personally briefed in late November 2016 by Steele in Surrey, England. After that briefing, Steele told the British court that an arrangement was made so that Fusion GPS — co-founded by Glenn Simpson – would provide hard copies of the dossier to McCain via Kramer. Shortly afterward, the dossier was given to the FBI, which already had its own copy from Steele.